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Coyote Doggirl
Coyote is a dreamer and a drama queen, brazen and brave, faithful yet fiercely independent. She beats her own drum and sews her own crop tops. A gifted equestrian, she’s half dog, half coyote, and all power. With the help of her trusty steed, Red, there’s not much that’s too big for her to bite off, chew up, and spit out right into your face, if you deserve it. But when Coyote and Red find themselves on the run from a trio of vengeful bad dogs, get clobbered by arrows, and are tragically separated, our protagonist is left fighting for her life and longing for her displaced best friend. Taken in by a wolf clan, Coyote may be wounded, but it’s not long before she’s back on the open road to track down Red and tackle the dogs who wronged her. An homage to and a lampoon of Westerns like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Lisa Hanawalt’s Coyote Doggirl is a self-aware, playful subversion of tropes. As our fallible hero attempts to understand the culture of the wolves, we see a journey in understanding and misunderstanding, adopting and co-opting. Uncomfortable at times but nonetheless rewarding and empowering, the story of these flawed, anthropomorphized characters is nothing if not relentlessly hilarious and heartbreakingly human. Told in Hanawalt’s technicolor absurdist style, Coyote Doggirl is not just a send-up of the Western genre but a deeply personal story told by an enormously talented cartoonist.
157 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 21, 2018
4 people are currently reading
1411 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 381 reviews
September 3, 2018
Lisa Hanawalt’s best known for designing the look of the Netflix show Bojack Horseman, which is mostly superb (season four jumped the shark). Her comics though? Bah. No - just terrible!
Coyote Doggirl and her trusty steed Red are on the run from evil men chasing her across the prairie. Will she… eh, whatever. It’s your standard Western. Stuff happens, she predictably overcomes some obstacles, the end.
It’s a boring story that doesn’t really do anything except go through ticking off the list of things you’re supposed to put in a Western while expounding on her love of horses/ponies. Snore.
The art is undoubtedly very pretty and Coyote Doggirl’s anachronistic, irreverent style of speaking is amusing at times but that’s about all the limp praise I can muster for this one.
Cliched and unoriginal, Coyote Doggirl is an unmemorable, unremarkable and dull comic.
Coyote Doggirl and her trusty steed Red are on the run from evil men chasing her across the prairie. Will she… eh, whatever. It’s your standard Western. Stuff happens, she predictably overcomes some obstacles, the end.
It’s a boring story that doesn’t really do anything except go through ticking off the list of things you’re supposed to put in a Western while expounding on her love of horses/ponies. Snore.
The art is undoubtedly very pretty and Coyote Doggirl’s anachronistic, irreverent style of speaking is amusing at times but that’s about all the limp praise I can muster for this one.
Cliched and unoriginal, Coyote Doggirl is an unmemorable, unremarkable and dull comic.
January 5, 2019
Talented illustrator Lisa Hanawalt's longest sustained narrative, a pretty entertaining feminist western featuring a, yes, anthropomorphic coyote doggirl and her faithful non-anthropomorphic horse Red. Pursued by "guys" and shot be their arrows, she is rescued by a wolf clan until she can be reunited with Red. That's pretty much it.
The best things about this is--as it was with My Dirty Dumb Eyes and Hot Dog Taste Test--is her striking use of color. And she's funny, profanely so in places. And if you love horses, this is for you.
The best things about this is--as it was with My Dirty Dumb Eyes and Hot Dog Taste Test--is her striking use of color. And she's funny, profanely so in places. And if you love horses, this is for you.
December 11, 2024
Surreal and original - Coyote Doggirl weaves a dream landscape and invites you in. This story is about a quest that is both internal and external; how we often discover who we are while we are going to a particular destination. The art is original and engaging. Will look for more books by Lisa Hanawalt.
January 29, 2024
silly and fun! makes me want to rewatch bojack 💔
September 13, 2018
I am not** a horse girl. But this was good.
February 8, 2019
A happy-go-lucky, not-super-bright, fashion-forward coyote and her best buddy Red the pony have some misadventures.
May 25, 2023
Fun, but problematic in the way all “westerns” are
March 28, 2019
Has Lisa Hanawalt been sent to this planet to rule us all??
I hope so.
Girl's got a real weird hitch in her giddyup.
I hope so.
Girl's got a real weird hitch in her giddyup.
November 30, 2018
If you have ever sought a feminist western starring a half dog/half coyote who likes to design functional travel clothing, and perform stunts while riding horseback, Coyote Doggirl is just the graphic novel for you.
September 28, 2018
My defenses were up as I started reading this graphic novel because I really had no use for Hanawalt's Hot Dog Taste Test, but I was won over in the first few pages when I realized this was simply a story about a woman's love of horseback riding. Sure, there are some bad guys and action sequences, but mostly this is a book about the love of horses. Which, weirdly, has been a theme in several other good books I've read this month: Live Long and. . .What I Learned Along the Way, 銀の匙 Silver Spoon 4 Gin no Saji Silver Spoon 4 , and Harris and Me. I love that kind of coincidence.
All these horses put me in mind that once upon a time I was a young teenager who grew up on a farm riding horses for play, to drive cattle, and in parades. They are truly wonderful animals.
The goofy, quirky humor of Hanawalt's storytelling and her strong female protagonist are the icing on the cake here.
All these horses put me in mind that once upon a time I was a young teenager who grew up on a farm riding horses for play, to drive cattle, and in parades. They are truly wonderful animals.
The goofy, quirky humor of Hanawalt's storytelling and her strong female protagonist are the icing on the cake here.
February 7, 2021
i want to read it a thousand times so i can memorize all the insanely quotable lines in it. also if anyone is starting to think about birthday presents for me i would love a pleasure saddle
December 29, 2021
so utterly endearing, and filled with some really gorgeous art (the colours!). very much classic lisa hanawalt.
June 8, 2019
Something like a Western. Coyote Doggirl is on the run from some men who want her dead. During the pursuit, she becomes badly wounded and--even worse--separated from her horse, Red. A native wolf tribe nurses her back to health, but Red is nowhere to be found. And so the search begins …
This was a light, quick read. Lisa Hanawalt’s style is colorful and engaging. CD is a fun character. The book is perhaps on the simplistic side. Stuff happens. More stuff happens. Conflict is resolved. The end. There's not much suspense or narrative arc or anything. There are references to famous Westerns--the bits at the beginning, where CD is being pursued by distant figures on horseback, would seem to be an homage to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, for instance--but they come off less interesting here than they do in their sources.
Fun book, but pretty inconsequential.
This was a light, quick read. Lisa Hanawalt’s style is colorful and engaging. CD is a fun character. The book is perhaps on the simplistic side. Stuff happens. More stuff happens. Conflict is resolved. The end. There's not much suspense or narrative arc or anything. There are references to famous Westerns--the bits at the beginning, where CD is being pursued by distant figures on horseback, would seem to be an homage to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, for instance--but they come off less interesting here than they do in their sources.
Fun book, but pretty inconsequential.
August 27, 2018
I loved this book. A feminist western is right up my alley and the art is 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌. I had a few uneasy moments around the wolves and their teepees... I know it’s a western and that’s part of the aesthetic but...
August 7, 2025
I stopped by my library today to return a stack of books and I just happened to spot this sitting on the shelf, the front cover facing outward as a display item. Of course the horse caught my eye right away (and in case you didn't guess yet I am a real sucker for books with horses on the cover) so I just had to check it out. And tomorrow is ranch day too so perfect timing!
This was a fun western to read. It's a graphic novel so the story moves pretty quick and it's a short read. It has all the usual tropes of a typical western: guns, indians, the great plains, lots of horses, bad guys who are after you... And there is even some of those pretty rocks you see out west too.
But this has an unusual twist. The main character is named Coyote and she is a dog. The Indians in here are wolves. The bad guy is a bull dog. So it's a world inhabitanted by canines.
Now this book isn't for kids even if it looks like a kid's book. There is profanity in the text, there is a somewhat graphic drawing of a horse (a very relaxed horse if you know what I mean) and there is also an attempted crime that starts with the letter "R". And like any western there are deaths. So yes, the book has a well written story where Coyote goes on a quest.
One thing that amazed me about this book is all the neat drawings of horses. It's not easy to draw a horse in my opinion. These are quite cartoony but they are fun. And many are given neat names too.
Coyote faced many setbacks in here. Nothing is easy for her. She is creative too. An inventor. Maybe that's why she lives alone, just her and her horse Red. Like any good horse owner, she is very devoted to Red.
I loved seeing the various landscapes in here. That brought the story to life.
And that map at the front of the book!!
The pages are thick too. In full color. The art maybe is pen and ink plus some color medium, maybe water colors?
I would definitely read this again! It's a very delightful adventure.
This was a fun western to read. It's a graphic novel so the story moves pretty quick and it's a short read. It has all the usual tropes of a typical western: guns, indians, the great plains, lots of horses, bad guys who are after you... And there is even some of those pretty rocks you see out west too.
But this has an unusual twist. The main character is named Coyote and she is a dog. The Indians in here are wolves. The bad guy is a bull dog. So it's a world inhabitanted by canines.
Now this book isn't for kids even if it looks like a kid's book. There is profanity in the text, there is a somewhat graphic drawing of a horse (a very relaxed horse if you know what I mean) and there is also an attempted crime that starts with the letter "R". And like any western there are deaths. So yes, the book has a well written story where Coyote goes on a quest.
One thing that amazed me about this book is all the neat drawings of horses. It's not easy to draw a horse in my opinion. These are quite cartoony but they are fun. And many are given neat names too.
Coyote faced many setbacks in here. Nothing is easy for her. She is creative too. An inventor. Maybe that's why she lives alone, just her and her horse Red. Like any good horse owner, she is very devoted to Red.
I loved seeing the various landscapes in here. That brought the story to life.
And that map at the front of the book!!
The pages are thick too. In full color. The art maybe is pen and ink plus some color medium, maybe water colors?
I would definitely read this again! It's a very delightful adventure.
January 28, 2019
I’ve been meaning to read this one for a while and I’m glad I finally did! The story unravels at an even pace and keeps the reader interested till the very end. There is a dark scene about halfway through the book in which you find out why Doggirl is being hunted by some men (or uh male dogs?) and why they tried to kill her at the beginning of the comic. The artwork is amazing - I love the colors and Hanawalt’s drawing style. Overall, a definite recommendation!
May 14, 2019
Not the worst thing I've ever read. But very far from the best and I am not really a fan of the artwork, even though I love BoJack. Which is super disappointing. The writing was fucking atrocious though. I think edgy was the goal and instead it felt like grown-up talking like a five year old. At least it was a quick read...
November 6, 2018
Hanawalt is a bit of an all-star via her work on BoJack Horseman. This is a lampoon of westerns using feminist anthropomorphized characters with dreamy watercolours and a healthy dose of love for horses.
February 7, 2021
We read this in book club, paired for some reason (I missed the meeting when we decided) with Reza Farazmand's City Monster. I found both books to be totally weird and wacky, but this one really just left me cold. Which is so odd! I fucking love Tuca & Bertie, and lady cartoonists, and protagonists who curse a lot! But this was just meandering and unevenly paced, with this, like, patina of wit, but I just couldn't find what was clever or connect with any of it.
It did, however, lead us (at book club) to discover the existence of Pizza Island, the onetime artist studio of an absolute explosion of lady cartooning talent: Sarah Glidden, Julia Wertz, Domitille Collardey, Kate Beaton, Meredith Gran, Lisa Hanawalt, Karen Sneider, and Deana Sobel Lederman. Unreal!! This place is like a 10-minute bike ride from where I live, which makes me feel like there was another untraveled reality where I could have been friends with these incredible women, or at least, like, visited them during an open studios festival and bought some prints. Anyway here is their group blog post about Pizza Island's demise; please go read it, it is about seven million times funnier than this book was (sorry!!!!!!!).
It did, however, lead us (at book club) to discover the existence of Pizza Island, the onetime artist studio of an absolute explosion of lady cartooning talent: Sarah Glidden, Julia Wertz, Domitille Collardey, Kate Beaton, Meredith Gran, Lisa Hanawalt, Karen Sneider, and Deana Sobel Lederman. Unreal!! This place is like a 10-minute bike ride from where I live, which makes me feel like there was another untraveled reality where I could have been friends with these incredible women, or at least, like, visited them during an open studios festival and bought some prints. Anyway here is their group blog post about Pizza Island's demise; please go read it, it is about seven million times funnier than this book was (sorry!!!!!!!).
January 27, 2021
excellent excellent art. i'm a huge bojack horseman fan so, naturally, i'm also a fan of lisa hanawalt.
April 12, 2025
really pretty art and just a fun romp.
August 20, 2018
A lot of indie graphic novels feel, to me, kind of aimless, and more focused on experimentation in narrative than telling a compelling story. This is not one of those indie graphic novels.
Hanawalt is a really smart storyteller, and has a quirky sense of dialogue that doesn't always jibe with me, but is never accidental or inept. Her riffs on Western tropes are intriguing, and never seem trite. Overall, the book was a little too spare for me to enjoy. Much like Westerns. So, again, she was totally successful in the writing and atmosphere she was trying to create, it just wasn't for me. Which is totally ok. Not everything needs to be.
I highly recommend this if you're looking for a quirky and well plotted narrative with a strong female protagonist, or just a fairly quick read that feels like and is a substantial story.
Hanawalt is a really smart storyteller, and has a quirky sense of dialogue that doesn't always jibe with me, but is never accidental or inept. Her riffs on Western tropes are intriguing, and never seem trite. Overall, the book was a little too spare for me to enjoy. Much like Westerns. So, again, she was totally successful in the writing and atmosphere she was trying to create, it just wasn't for me. Which is totally ok. Not everything needs to be.
I highly recommend this if you're looking for a quirky and well plotted narrative with a strong female protagonist, or just a fairly quick read that feels like and is a substantial story.
November 7, 2018
Well crap, I really wanted to fall in love with this. But the story was just too simplistic for me and I never got a sense of character from Coyote. Don't get me wrong, I am starting to love Westerns as a genre (old ones and new), and this does it's part adding a neon technicolor, gender swapped volume to the Western genre (in graphic novel form, no less). However the basis of the story wasn't anything new, and I couldn't believe it as a "lampoon" (as the jacket calls it) of the genre. Just a unique spin on the setting and anthropomorphizing the characters.
The ending was very abrupt but it did allow for sequels. The dialogue was anachronistic, which I don't mind most times, but it was much too simplistic and didn't add anything to the story. This might have been better as a wordless graphic novel--it would have allowed for more nuanced and possible meanings throughout.
Perhaps it was just because I couldn't find any symbolism in the use of color. Even in surreal "pointless" works, I still find color to be symbolic, but here, it just wasn't meaningful. It was amazingly bright and lovely though.
Or maybe it was just the fact that half the time I saw Coyote as a rabbit or kangaroo. Hanawalt's illustrations of horses are amazing, but the other characters are just too basic in design.
I've never read or listened to or watched any of Hanawalt's other works, so I might be missing some underlying stylistic understanding.
The ending was very abrupt but it did allow for sequels. The dialogue was anachronistic, which I don't mind most times, but it was much too simplistic and didn't add anything to the story. This might have been better as a wordless graphic novel--it would have allowed for more nuanced and possible meanings throughout.
Perhaps it was just because I couldn't find any symbolism in the use of color. Even in surreal "pointless" works, I still find color to be symbolic, but here, it just wasn't meaningful. It was amazingly bright and lovely though.
Or maybe it was just the fact that half the time I saw Coyote as a rabbit or kangaroo. Hanawalt's illustrations of horses are amazing, but the other characters are just too basic in design.
I've never read or listened to or watched any of Hanawalt's other works, so I might be missing some underlying stylistic understanding.
January 13, 2021
I've read this book like 4 times, and each time I notice something different. Lisa Hanawalt is a GENIUS! I know this is sorta the purpose of books, but I truly felt like I was in a different world while reading this. I want to go out into the wild and make friends with girl wolves. I want to make a cute top out of stuff I find in the woods. I want to go outside :(
The characters' voices are all so fun and distinct. While being a book that is so heavily imaginative, it does still contain the one deeply realistic human truth: men suck. Just kidding, boys, but not really. The deep conflict at the heart of the book is that a creepy man tries to sexually assault the protagonist, and the book has a more serious tone after that reveal. If you're not interested or able to consume a story like that, maybe shelf this book for now. But I loved the story and the friendships and the weird jokes and the adventure and the nature and the ending and the beginning and also the middle.
This book is certainly a short read if you're interested in only the plot, but a long read if you're obsessed with the art like I am. Again, I really have to comment on the imagination of this book. I feel like I'm sick of consuming stuff that is so deeply rooted in our shitty reality. I wanna be where the sky is pink 'cuz it's pretty and people won't hurt you if you're wearing a cute top. 5/5!
The characters' voices are all so fun and distinct. While being a book that is so heavily imaginative, it does still contain the one deeply realistic human truth: men suck. Just kidding, boys, but not really. The deep conflict at the heart of the book is that a creepy man tries to sexually assault the protagonist, and the book has a more serious tone after that reveal. If you're not interested or able to consume a story like that, maybe shelf this book for now. But I loved the story and the friendships and the weird jokes and the adventure and the nature and the ending and the beginning and also the middle.
This book is certainly a short read if you're interested in only the plot, but a long read if you're obsessed with the art like I am. Again, I really have to comment on the imagination of this book. I feel like I'm sick of consuming stuff that is so deeply rooted in our shitty reality. I wanna be where the sky is pink 'cuz it's pretty and people won't hurt you if you're wearing a cute top. 5/5!
October 4, 2018
Half dog, half coyote (in no way human, though humanoid), pursued by dogmen seeking revenge. This is basically a western, notably a Hanawalt western for playing with the relationships of anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic animals and for its offhanded slacker millennial feminist vibe and dialogue. Enjoyable enough, and with an especially striking sense of color, but as a western it doesn't really push the envelope. But I believe it's Lisa Hanawalt's longest sustained narrative, outside, perhaps, of Bojack Horseman, which I've never actually seen.
October 1, 2018
I liked the idea of this more than the execution. As a big fan of her collections of comics, and a modest fan of Western things, I saw alot of promise here. But... it just didn't deliver for me. Maybe because it was just a bit more muted than her other works; or maybe because I am currently exhausted from reading about strong women being victimized by men (or coyote dogs by dogs? you get the idea).
January 11, 2019
2 1/2 for me and a big hate to everybody who insisted for me to read this, I didn't found it funny and I think it has a NLOG vibe to me, if you are a horse fan for sure you are gonna like it, but I'm not so what's to say, I don't understand why are people talking like she invented something, for me it was a classical GN, idk this book has leave me a bitter taste.
August 18, 2018
wowie!!!! pairs well with mitski’s “be the cowboy”! such a good story and the illustration and colours are perfect!!!
September 11, 2018
This might just be my favorite graphic novel.
July 26, 2019
Yeah, super problematic with it's depiction of Native/Indigenous peoples. Kind of lost me there.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 381 reviews